Goo Goo vs. Toys + Food

The most amusing part of fostering so far with Goo Goo is watching her try foods that are new to her. All these new flavors that she is just discovering are the same that Shio chows down with gusto. Watching Goo Goo playing with toys is hilarious too. She does not know how to play with it and only gets in a bite or two on a squeaky toy before Shio runs in and steals it from her. When we offer new foods to her, we also hold out a piece for Shio too. Before accepting her piece, she always sniffs Shio's first to see if he's eating the same thing. When she determines that it's edible, she takes it gingerly in her mouth and rolls it around on her tongue. Then drops it on the ground. Then picks it back up with her mouth and bites down with her teeth to break the surface of the treat. A little flavor comes out. She rolls it around in her mouth some more. Eventually after much experimentation and examination, she decides that it's palatable and chews the treat. All the meanwhile Shio stares at her waiting for her to drop or abandon her food on the ground. So far she's tried mango, apple, cottage cheese, marrow bone, pig's ear, blueberries, and bananas.

Goo Goo hasn't gotten the concept of toys yet. I don't think she had any toys in her previous home. She doesn't really know what to do with a stuffed squeaky toy or a ball. She always observes Shio chase down a thrown toy and carry it back to the living room rug for a squeak fest. She's starting to take initiative to finding toys on her own and experimenting with them. Experimentation includes chewing lightly on the toy. Her favorite toy right now is a squeaky beaver ball with tail.

Where Brooklyn At?

"Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at?" 'Cause Shio just moved and he's trying to figure out where he's at.

Okay so it's ridiculous to quote Biggie when we moved to downtown Brooklyn... a fairly safe neighborhood with lots of loved dogs. It's been 3 weeks since we moved to our new dwelling and a much longer period of time for anticipating the move. Five months, to be exact. Luckily, we saw that Jenna and Snickers were moving and asked Jenna for some advice on helping Shio adjust to his new home. Coupled with Jenna's and our own techniques, it seems that we've achieved a smooth transition from old home to new home for Shio.

Here's what we did:

1. Labeled our "Open Immediately" boxes clearly. They included our everyday necessities, kitchen spoils, and most importantly, Shio's toys, beds and bowls. We set up his belongings as soon as we finished moving so that he would feel at ease to see familiar items in new surroundings.

2. Found a pet sitter for moving day. It's amazing to me that families will "forget" their pets during the move. How can you forget? Making sure that Shio had a proper sitter the day of was one of our priorities. We have wonderful friends whom live down the block from us and they were happy to watch Shio for the day. And Shio was happy to be with his buddies for the day. And we were happy to have Shio out of the way for the day. Talk about win-win-win.

3. Visited the new neighborhood with Shio before the move. We schlepped to Brooklyn with Shio a couple of times to allow him to sniff and mark his new neighborhood. After we moved, Shio was already familiar with the area and knew how to walk straight to the dog run from our new place!

4. Keep dirty bedsheets. At first, we weren't sure if Jenna was messing with us and wanted us to be the stinky new people on the block (jk), but she gave us some solid advice on keeping our scent on our bedsheets. When we moved, the first thing we unpacked were our sheets and put them on the bed. The first thing Shio did was jump on our bed, sniff around in circles and plop down on the bed. Just to let everyone know, we did wash them as week before we moved so we wouldn't be too dirty.

5. Keep the same routines. 9am potty & breakfast. 5pm potty & dinner. 10pm potty. That's all there is to it!

Hope this was helpful for anyone that's moving.

In the meantime, we're going to keep working on adjusting to our new surroundings.

It's a whole new world out here. :)

Now imagine that you were wearing a mini skirt and stilettos...

Cute puppies with bad habits are hard to correct because they are so cute. But we need to for the sake of having a seemingly well behaved dog, we corrected Shio the first moment that we saw it happen. Before each correction, I used to think to myself, "If this happened to me while I was wearing a mini skirt and stiletto heels, would I still think it's cute?"

That immediately eliminated these behaviors:

1. Jumping - Large red nail scrapes running down your leg = not sexy.

2. Pulling on walks - Definitely does not make you look like a you've got it all together while getting pulled down the block by your dog.

3. Running away after pooping - Imagine yourself trying to pick up poop without exposing your private bits all-the-meanwhile balancing yourself in your heels and then getting pulled over and falling face first into the poop because your dog darts away after relieving himself. Also not sexy!

Of course I thought about writing this post after Shio jumped on me while wearing a pair of shorts. He wanted me to throw his squeaky ball. I had a big red mark running down the front of my thigh. :(

Shio vs. Jersey Shore

Rain, rain, go away. Come back... never!  It's another cold & rainy day in NYC so to keep myself entertained, here's a fun post.

Reasons why Shio should be on the cast of Jersey Shore:

1. Shio rides with popped collars only. Wut wut.

2. Shio wears sunglasses... indoors.

3. He can beat the stuffing out of anyone who tries to bust a squeak.

4. His boys call him "The Shredder."

5. Like any tried and true meathead, his neck is thicker than his head.

Shio's Current Favorite Toy

It's amazing that J and I will spend good money on toys that we think Shio will love but the ones he loves are the cheapest toys in his toy box.

He currently loves the Petco toy that I bought for him as a compulsive, last minute buy. It is a plush sheep squeaky ball that I bought for a couple of bucks but it's actually really nicely designed.

As you may already know, Shio absolutely adores all his squeaky toys, especially if it is a squeaky ball. This toy not only squeaks when you deflate it, but it also squeaks as it is reinflates itself. The rubber ball on the inside keeps the toy intact from his destructive self while keeping the plushness of a soft toy with the fleecy outside. It is also incredibly adorable. I love the smile on the sheep's face as I chuck the ball for Shio to fetch.

Overall a great buy. We will have to wait and see how long it will keep his interest for.